With the decided shift towards college players in the Rule 4 draft (a.k.a. First-Year Players), it’s no surprise that the 2010 GCL Nationals were among the oldest in the league (batters, 20.4; pitchers, 21.5). Unfortunately, like the proverbial trailer park, if they weren’t putting a hurt a somebody (league-leading 5.21 R/G scored), they were getting hammered (third-worst 5.27 R/G allowed). Hence, a losing record at 24-32 that was four games under the 28-28 pythagorean projection.

Here’s a look at how they compared to the rest of the league…

HITTING

TEAM

AB

R

H

HR

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

GPA

SB

GCL Nats

1895

292

505

18

194

404

.266

.343

.370

.247

76

Lg. Avg.

1887

253

466

23

174

432

.247

.321

.349

.232

64

Bold = League Leader

PITCHING

TEAM

IP

ERA

R/G

WHIP

HR

BB

SO

H/9IP

BB/9IP

K/9IP

K/BB

GCL Nats

483.0

4.29

5.27

1.346

30

167

412

9.0

3.1

7.7

2.47

Lg. Avg.

496.0

3.62

4.39

1.289

23

174

432

8.4

3.2

7.8

2.48

For an organization that’s been hurting for offense, leading the league in runs scored per game, RBI, hits, batting average, and on-base percentage is a good thing. They also drew the third-most walks and struck out at the fourth-lowest rate, and stole bases at a league-best 76% (76-for-100) success rate.

Unfortunately, the pitching wasn’t there and neither was the defense; both were third-worst on a rate basis (runs per game, fielding percentage). Even worse: Three of the bottom five in terms of runs allowed are DSL grads (Gregory Baez, Pedro Encarnacion, and Miguel Navarro).

Playing time was split much more evenly in the GCL vs. the DSL, so I’m listing the top 12 batters in terms of plate appearances, assigning positions by games appeared. The full statistics for the team can be found here.

Like the DSL, players were rotated defensively, with most positions having two or three primary starters. As VladiHondo pointed out in the DSL season review, the showing of ’09 DSL “graduates” was weak, with Martinez and Wander Ramos he only two getting significant playing time at 106 and 99 PAs respectively.

As the parenthetical indicates, there were three 2010 draftees that got playing time in the GCL but were not in the Top 12. Hague obviously impressed in his limited playing time to get the bump to Hagerstown, posting a .275/.380/.300 line in 50PA but Hughes was actually a little better with a .293/.359/.448 in 65 PA. Rashad Hatcher posted just a .200/241/.218 line in 59 PA.

On to the pitchers, listing the top 12 in terms of innings pitched…

PLAYER

AGE

G/GS

W-L, SV

ERA

IP

H

BB

SO

WHIP

HBP

WP

Kelvin Lopez

20

11/8

4-4, 0

4.44

46⅔

54

12

26

1.414

3

6

Gregory Baez

18

11/6

1-2, 0

2.61

38

44

23

40

1.763

4

5

Tyler Hanks

20

10/4

4-1, 1

3.51

33⅓

37

6

25

1.290

3

4

Nick Serino

21

14/1

2-2, 0

3.16

25⅔

21

5

25

1.013

1

3

Pedro Encarnacion

19

8/6

0-3, 0

6.48

25

28

12

15

1.600

2

3

Christian Meza

19

9/2

1-2, 0

1.52

23⅔

16

10

23

1.099

2

5

Billy Ott

22

7/0

1-0, 1

1.17

23

16

3

19

0.826

4

0

Manuel Rivera

22

13/0

2-2, 0

2.61

20⅔

15

12

21

1.306

5

2

Tim Dupuis

21

16/0

3-1, 3

4.79

20⅔

23

5

21

1.355

0

1

Miguel Navarro

17

14/1

1-1, 0

8.10

20

19

21

11

2.000

10

6

Mike Gallo

23

12/0

0-2, 0

8.38

19⅓

25

11

11

1.862

1

1

Matt Grace

21

8/5

1-1, 0

4.32

18⅔

23

3

14

1.393

1

1

The spring-training usage of pitchers in the GCL makes it impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions. This particular year saw a lot of rehab activity (seven full-season minor-leaguers, four major-leaguers) as thirty pitchers threw at least one inning, and as you can see the cutoff for the Top 12 was 18 innings (Chris Manno was #13)

OBLIGATORY TOP FIVE LISTS
The same caveat applies to the GCL as it does the DSL (sight unseen) and with the pitchers, it’s even more shaky, but folks love lists so here goes, along with some honorable mentions to account for the guesswork smaller sample sizes here.

Our final 2010 look at the leaders, trailers, and outliers in the Washington Nationals minor leagues, with a focus on the level where the prospects shone the brightest, not counting some guy who made a tour for service-time reasons (*ahem*).